Klaipėdos universitetas

In the eighteenth century, the Abbé Lebeuf was a reknowned historian, a folklorist, a musicologist, and an archaeologist. He published several books and many articles in the Mercure de France. He was still famous in the 19th century but is now almost forgotten. His work contains a great many notes, reflections and other pieces of information of interest to those studying astronomy in culture. I present here a short selection of such fragments.

The paper suggests that The Book of Esther contains astronomical and chronological information associated with the reign of Artaxerxes II. It further investigates a play on dates concerning an intercalary 12th Hebrew month and the eve of Passover, and possible mathematical references to Ancient Near Eastern and Jewish calendars.